


Deep blues and Vibrant greens

by Eyepatchie



Category: Free!, Iwatobi Swim Club - Fandom
Genre: AU, Alternate Universe, First Kiss, First Time, Fluff and Angst, Free! - Freeform, Friends to Lovers, M/M, Mutual Pining, iwatobi swim club - Freeform, new student au
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-03-30
Updated: 2015-03-30
Packaged: 2018-03-20 08:24:01
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,549
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3643371
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Eyepatchie/pseuds/Eyepatchie
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Makoto Tachibana, the new student at Iwatobi High has caught everyone's attention... Well, ALMOST everyone.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Charming Smile

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The new kid at school irks Haruka like no other, his smile, his laugh...his adorable personality. Just everything about him spells out annoying

**i.**

The loudness of the class becomes noticeably quiet when the name of the new student is announced, either way, it all becomes background noise to Haruka. He's staring intently out of the window, as he's always done in History class. From the corner of Haruka's eye he could see the boy was tall, with light brown hair and  _vibrant_ green eyes, he could practically hear all the girls fawning over the student, in hushed and not-so-hushed whispers. They briefly make eye-contact and Haruka notices the deep and intense blush spreading across the bridge of the other's nose and the apples of his cheeks, the sight alone elicits the smallest of smiles before Haruka tears his gaze away and continues to peer out the window.  

          "Nanase-kun~" The teacher calls, again "Nanase-kun, would you mind showing Tachibana-kun around campus today?" 

 

            and he responds with,  "Oh, okay." 

 

Both boys are rewarded with an early start out of class, and half way down the hall does Makoto begin to thank Haruka profusely. 

"It's fine." Haruka sighs, casting his gaze downward, in a poor attempt to hide the beginning phases of a blush. 

 _How annoying,_ He thinks.

"Ah-- So nice to know I'm not the only one with a girly name, Haru-chan."

             He does this thing where he smiles real cute and tilts his head. 

"Don't call me - _chan..._ " 

"ah! Sorry, sorry! Ha-ha" 

Haruka hates to admit it, but he was beginning to think of his company as  _tolerable_. 

**ii. Later that day**

"Haru-chan! We finally have a fourth member! Mako-chan swims backstroke!" 

_Mako-chan... ? Does he mean--?_

Haruka blinks once, twice, and a third time before Makoto decides to turn around and wave, almost as if he read his mind and Nagisa waves him over along with Rei.

         "Oh, Haru-ch...Haru, I didn't know you swam." He smiles, it's so innocent, so  _charming._

         "Yeah." Haruka replies, discarding his clothing while doing so.

 Rei and Nagisa both shoot glances at Makoto to catch his reaction, and as expected he's nearly covering his eyes and squealing for Haru to change elsewhere.  

_He'll get used to it._

  **iii.**

 "Wow Mako-chan! You're really good at backstroke!"

 They're now toweling off from the showers and Nagisa keeps  _ranting_ on about how lucky they are to have someone, and how their team is officially complete. 

Makoto's eyes are glued elsewhere, he's staring at Haruka swim a few extra laps, "Haruka-senpai is amazing, isn't he?" Rei pauses, and stands beside Makoto.

"Yeah..." Gaze is reluctantly torn away from such beautiful sight, he could honestly look at Haruka swim for hours. 

...

Once they're done changing they begin their walk home, Nagisa brushes against Makoto, smiling vibrantly as always, 

       "Mako-chan, do you think Haru-chan is scary?" 

        "Ah-not really, I understand where he's coming from... I  _think--_ he's almost like a cat." 

Haruka refuses to acknowledge said statement, and focuses on  _why_ Nagisa is tugging at his sleeve.

        "What is it?" 

        "Haru-chan! Mako-chan lives right next to you! So you won't have to walk alone anymore." 

  He can almost guess that Makoto is tilting his head with a beaming smile, Haruka grimaces at the thought. 

   "Hm- well this is our train, Nagisa-kun, let's hurry." Rei spares a worried glance toward Nagisa, and he nods. 

   "Okay! Okay! Bye Haru-chan! Mako-chan!" 

They both see their younger teammates off before beginning to walk toward their house.

"Haru?"

"What?"

"Thank you again for showing me around."

"It's okay." 

Makoto smiles in return, "I guess we can walk to school now, too... Since we're neighbors and all..." 

A brief pause, a single brow ascends,  "Sure." 

....

Haruka really can't get to sleep that night, yet alone peel his eyes from the direction of Makoto's house, Or forget that charming smile, or adorable little head tilt. Haruka observes all of this, and quietly replays it in the back of his mind, when he's alone, before going to bed...

  _Makoto Tachibana..._

_ugh._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello everyone! This is my second W.I.P here and I hope you all enjoy this AU. It should be an interesting ride >_> It's really late now, so excuse any spelling errors, I wrote this on a whim.


	2. Happy

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Something Makoto has an abundance of and something Haruka discovers he's missing.

**i.**

Haruka finds himself resting in the tub longer than usual and he's sure he wouldn't make it to school on time. It also meant that Makoto Tachibana would have been forced to leave to school _without_ him, Haruka relaxes at the thought of this, perhaps that had been the plan all along;  **avoid Makoto at all cost.** Head sinks further into the  _now_ lukewarm water, and he'll spend another fifteen minutes in the bath. Breakfast then follows as planned and consists of Mackerel, like always, a glance at the clock and he realizes he wouldn't be as late as he thought; he wonders what Makoto had been doing, what  **is** he doing.

 **ii**.

"Good Morning, Haru!" The ever so annoying voice pierces through his thoughts, and he scrunches up his face as if he had just walked out of a dark room into pure sunshine. That's what Makoto was like,  _sunshine._ He ponders this comparison and his heart flutters at the thought of Makoto's smile, it was so  _contagious--_ he makes everything look so easy. Haruka is jealous, he too wishes he could express himself so easily, he wishes he  **had** something to be happy about. 

Makoto is sitting at the base of the stairs rubbing his large fingers against the soft fur of a kitten, the one Haruka usually feeds, easily tossing a smile in Haruka's direction as if he had an abundance of _happy_. The kitten glances at Haruka and immediately rushes to his side nuzzling it's head against the fabric of his khaki school uniform.  Haruka's gaze remains glued to the ground, watching the fluid motions of the kitten and trying to suppress the rushing of the blood to his cheeks.

      "We should get going now, huh?" Makoto asks, standing on his feet.

      "Yeah." 

      "I _was_ going to go knock for you, but I wouldn't want to rush you." Makoto smiles, and Haruka's heart skips a beat. 

      "Oh. It's okay."  

This earns a small smile from Haruka, and Makoto gladly enjoys the sight. 

   "Oh, that reminds me, my parents went to introduce themselves the other day but no one was home..." 

   "I live alone." 

Makoto pauses for a second, casting his gaze toward the concrete below,

   "Oh-- I'-I'm sorry-- I..." 

   "They're not  _dead_ or anything...Just busy." 

   "Ah... Well you should come over for dinner, tonight! My parents would want to meet you too." 

   "Sure." 

**iii.**

During History class it finally hits Haruka that Makoto is not only his classmate, but teammate  **and** neighbor. He would be seeing him every single day,  _all_ day. A drawn out, lethargic sigh before gaze averts toward the front of the classroom. One day Makoto would catch him staring, and part of Haruka wanted to get caught, just to see him smile. 

"Haru-chan looks happy today, huh, Rei-chan?!" They're eating lunch on the roof of the school, and Haruka had been stealing way too many glances at Makoto lately. "You're actually right, Nagisa-kun...Haruka-senpai has this sort of _glow_ today." Nagisa then whispers something to Makoto which causes a faint blush to spread across his cheeks. By this time, Haruka has lost all interest in their conversation and begins to clean up his mess, Preparing to head down to the pool. 

**iv.**

He tells Makoto he's going to get changed before heading on over for dinner and Makoto nods and goes to tell his mom that Haruka had agreed to come to dinner with him. He's beaming a little more tonight, and his gaze lingers about Haruka's frame a while longer than usual. 

Haruka doesn't mind the extra attention, not if it's from Makoto. There's a small ache within his chest and it's only becoming more prominent, more painful. He really doesn't want to spend time with Makoto's family, maybe he'd feel differently if it was just with Makoto. 

He considers staying home that night. 

**v.**

"Makoto tells me a lot about you!" His mother beams, and it becomes apparent that Makoto gets his smile from his mother, they tilt their head in the same way and he must have gotten his height and broad shoulders from his father. The mackerel is a bit _over_ seasoned, but good nonetheless, he appreciates their efforts despite the indifference he projects. 

"He tells me you're on the same swim team, and how you're such a wonderful swimmer..." She continues, but Haruka isn't really listening anymore, the kids, Ren and Ran are shooting each other sly smiles and giggles when Makoto's mother mentions something about how Makoto  _admires_ him and Makoto of course begins to blush furiously and _whine_ to his mother, " _Th-That's enough for now._ " The kids burst into laughter,as expected, and one accidentally spills their tea on themselves and the table cloth. Ren, his little brother, apologizes profusely and Haruka thinks that maybe it runs in the family.  

"It's okay, Ren, just go get cleaned up." Makoto smiles again and instantly all the worry on Ren's face had been relieved, he nods with a new found happiness and he encourages Ran to help clean things up.

Afterwards he turns back to Haruka faintly blushing,

"Sorry, Haru-chan." 

 "It's --okay." He feels inclined to say something  _more,_ but doesn't, Makoto nods along anyway, like he **understands.**  

"I hope you liked it, Nagisa had told me... That all you ever really eat is Mackerel--" 

 He nods bashfully albeit bashfully. 

"I'll walk you home." 

 

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ah, this was a little light chapter. I'm still experimenting with writing styles and what not, but I like the time skips a bit better so I might be sticking to this for now. iunno. I think Haruka is getting used to Makoto too fast, faster than he would like to anyway. Your comments and kudos are always much appreciated! Thank you!


End file.
